Elon Musk

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk won approval on Thursday from the electric luxury automaker's shareholders for an acquisition of SolarCity, the solar energy system installer in which he is the largest shareholder.

Tesla plans to begin looking for locations in Europe next year for a "gigafactory" to make cars and the battery cells to power them. The move follows Tesla's announcement that it will buy German robotics and automated manufacturing specialist Grohmann Engineering.